{"id":1405,"date":"2010-12-12T22:36:58","date_gmt":"2010-12-13T05:36:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/drcathiedunal.com\/blog\/?p=1405"},"modified":"2011-02-01T17:46:53","modified_gmt":"2011-02-02T00:46:53","slug":"holiday-travel-tips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/drcathiedunal.com\/articles\/2010\/holiday-travel-tips\/","title":{"rendered":"Handy Travel Tips"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>\"\"By Cathie Dunal, MD, MPH: <\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/span>CLEAN YOUR CREDIT CARDS (and everything else you can think of!) <\/strong><\/span>You\u2019re waiting at the airport and decide to eat.\u00a0 You\u2019ve just washed your hands because you used the self check-in machine. \u00a0You order, hand your credit card to the cashier, take it back, then sit down and take a big bite.\u00a0 Think about it!\u00a0 After touching everyone else\u2019s credit card, the cashier has taken yours, given it back to you with a sampling of the bugs<\/em> du jour — <\/em>you get the bugs on your fingers, then you eat. \u00a0(Alcohol wipes work just fine.)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

EASIER AIRPORT <\/strong><\/span>\u201cIt was an excellent flight,\u201d my elderly mother beamed as I walked up to her inside the baggage claim area, \u201cand this is a beautiful airport.\u201d\u00a0 I thought so too as I pulled her suitcase off the carousel and walked to the car waiting 20 feet outside.<\/span><\/p>\n

Flying into Milwaukee rather than O\u2019Hare turned out to be an excellent idea because it\u2019s a smaller airport, easier for her to manage, and easier for me to pick her up.\u00a0 The extra 20 minutes of traffic-free expressway travel was well worth it.\u00a0 I imagine it would be easier for families with children too.<\/p>\n

But I initially booked the flight into Milwaukee for health reasons:\u00a0 Mom caught a bug and needed antibiotics the last few times she\u2019s flown.\u00a0 My guess was that a smaller regional airport, with fewer people coming from overseas, and shorter wait times, would expose her to fewer infectious challenges.\u00a0 So far, so good!\u00a0 She\u2019s been back home for a week now, with no signs of sickness.\u00a0 It\u2019s Milwaukee next time, for sure.<\/span><\/p>\n

POTENTIALLY PROTECTIVE PILLS <\/strong>Preparations said to help ward off sickness when exposed to crowds include: <\/span>Vitamin C (I prefer buffered C), Zinc, Silver Spray, Air Borne, and Source Naturals\u2019 Wellness Formula<\/em>.\u00a0 Hand washing\/sanitizing can\u2019t be emphasized enough!\u00a0 Don\u2019t hesitate to stay home or use a mask if you<\/strong> are sick.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

GREAT LINK FOR INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL INSURANCE <\/strong><\/span>International Medical Group<\/span><\/a> provides very reasonable overseas health insurance: click or call\u00a0800-655-4500.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Cathie Dunal, MD, MPH: CLEAN YOUR CREDIT CARDS (and everything else you can think of!) You\u2019re waiting at the airport and decide to eat.\u00a0 You\u2019ve just washed your hands because you used the self check-in machine. \u00a0You order, hand your credit card to the cashier, take it back, then sit down and take a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9],"tags":[257,59,258,259,233,232,117,230],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/drcathiedunal.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1405"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/drcathiedunal.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/drcathiedunal.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/drcathiedunal.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/drcathiedunal.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1405"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"http:\/\/drcathiedunal.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1405\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1646,"href":"http:\/\/drcathiedunal.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1405\/revisions\/1646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/drcathiedunal.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/drcathiedunal.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/drcathiedunal.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}